It Ended with a Whisper
by Shadowhunting Demigod
Summary: *MAJOR SPOILERS FOR CITY OF HEAVENLY FIRE* After the sword burned away everything evil, there wasn't enough of Jonathan left to survive, but what if Clary had saved him. Creating a rune was the easy part, it's figuring out how to live when you bear the face of a demon that is difficult.
1. It Ended with a Whisper

_"I don't hate you," she said finally. "I hate Sebastian. I don't know you."_

And now you'll never have the chance, Clary thought with a certain anguish she was unable to describe. She had always wanted an older brother, someone with which to hang out and tell her secrets. She remembered the dream the demon had brought her not so long ago; a boy with green eyes and soft features. It was the brother she never had, Jonathan.

Jonathan.

The lying right right in front of her, dying.

Her brother.

Jonathan Christopher Fairchild.

Suddenly, Clary's vision went white. She didn't notice the stele in her hand until it her hand moved, drawing, carving out the shape in her mind onto the skin above his heart.

A curve of the line.

**Jonathan**

A sharp angle.

**Christopher**

The line curls.

**Fairchild**

It ends in a whisper.

**My brother**


	2. The Face of a Monster

Thanks everyone so much for the awesome feedback! Sorry for the short chapters, I'll try to update fairly often to make up for it, but I write best in fragments. As always, all characters belong to the amazing Cassandra Clare, as well as the plot line before my story began. Hope you like it! :)

Jonathan stood outside Luke's farm house debating on when he would turn around and leave; it wasn't a question of if he would go, but rather how long he would stand in front of the house before he inevitably left.

The invitation Jonathan had received a fortnight ago from Clary and Jocelyn had been more of a gesture of good faith he had known then a sign of their desire to actually see him .

Jonathan shoved his hands into his pockets in an attempt to keep them from shaking, something he found himself doing when he was nervous. It was such a foreign feeling to him. His entire life up until a few months back had been lived as Sebastian, in which Jonathan spent his time drowning in the demonic presence that controlled him, fighting just to stay afloat. The worst part was never knowing the difference, Jonathan had decided, the inability to know the difference until someone pulls you from the water; when your lungs fill with oxygen and for the first time in your life, you can breathe.

He looked at the house in front of him it wasn't hard to imagine what was going on inside the tent out back. Everyone would be smiling and dancing, hugging and kissing. They would be a family.

Jonathan turned to leave, but instead found himself slammed backward a bit. He quickly regained his footing and looked for whatever he had run into. To his surprise he found himself staring at a mix of red hair and green eyes. _Clary_. He had run into her as he was turning around.

The first moments between them were silent and nothing short of awkward. Clary seemed surprised he had shown up and did an all too terrible job of hiding the shock on her face. Frankly he couldn't blame her. Jonathan had no idea would make it this far, and even now he was turning around. He was running away.

Clary recovered first. "I didn't think you were going to come," she said. The look on her face wasn't happy exactly, but not upset or indifferent either.

"I wasn't, I mean," Jonathan kept tripping over words in an attempt to convey what he wanted. It seemed like nowadays his life relied heavily on carefully chosen words. The perfect words were a person's best commodity. "I'm leaving," he managed finally. Clary didn't have to ask him why he wasn't going inside. It was hard to love someone who wore the face of a monster.

"You don't have to leave, you know. You were invited," she told him.

"Look me in the eyes and tell me it's a good idea to stay."

Clary smiled.

"Screw good ideas."


	3. I Stand Alone

Thanks so much for all the great reviews everyone! I'm so sorry it took me so long to update; I've been pretty busy with school ending and extracurricular activities. I actually wanted to make this chapter much longer than it turned out to be, but I couldn't seem to write past the point where this chapter ends. Once I have a more complete idea of where this story is going, I'll make the chapters longer. The Mortal Instruments and its characters belong to the lovely Cassandra Clare.

Clary could sense Jonathan's unease about the whole situation. To be honest she couldn't blame him. Just because the Clave had let him live didn't mean people were exactly happy about the idea. She remembered the trial after the war, everyone's hands burned from the Mortal Sword. Even after they found everyone to be truthful, no one was ready to trust that Jonathan was not Sebastian. She suspected the only reason Jonathan was still alive was because of her insistence, though they did strip him of his marks. Clary could feel Jonathan tense beside her as a protest to entering the white tent outside. She reached for his hand he looked at it startled for moment before letting her lace her fingers between his own.

"Don't worry, most everyone has left by now."

"That's not all that encouraging, "he replied.

"You'll be fine." Even when Clary spoke, she sounded as though she doubted it as well.

Clary still held Jonathan's hand as she lead him through the farmhouse and out back to the tent.

As they entered, Clary could feel everyone's eyes on them. It was like a scene out of a movie where the villain walks in on a party, and everyone gets really quiet. The only problem was that they got their bad guy wrong, and the innocent don't deserve stares like that.

Luckily, the only people left were Jace, Alec and Magnus, Isabelle and Simon, and of course, Luke and her mom.

The air was very tense. Isabelle was the first to pipe up, which didn't exactly help.

"What is he doing here, " she asked, looking at Jonathan like she was going going to kill him.

"I invited him," Clary responded. Admittedly, she had though Izzy would have a problem with Jonathan being there, but she still wasn't quite sure how badly this was all going to go. Selfishly, Clary had hoped Izzy would have been gone if Jonathan had decided to show up. Izzy was kickass and could hold a grudge like nobody's business.

Izzy looked betrayed. "After everything he's done, after all the people he has killed?! " she yelled, walking towards the two of them. She stopped a couple feet away from Clary, close enough for her to hear her uneven breaths and the tightness in her voice. She seemed to have lost sight of Jonathan and had focused her gaze on Clary, who fought the urge to shrink under the taller girl's pressing stare. Izzy's voice was nothing more than a whisper now,"After Max?" she questioned.

Clary opened her mouth to speak, but found herself choking on words. Art, art was her medium and Clary could speak it fluently. Lines and colors she understood like paragraphs and sentences, but given only a library of letters, she struggled to use them. Even Jace, who was so good with words, stood by the piano, silent. Clary looked around the room for support, but everyone was none too willing to help. They didn't want to speak lies.

Clary finally found her voice. "Izzy, you of all people should know what it's like to lose a brother. "

"You never had a brother, Clary! You are holding onto a piece of a person who could have existed, but didn't. He is a fragment of a person and you need to let go. " Izzy was shouting now.

"Izzy, " Alec sighed.

"I think it's best if we both stayed out of this," Magnus whispered to Alec.

"Never thought I'd say this, but I couldn't agree more warlock," Jace responded quietly.

Clary was furious now. "Jonathan is a human being and he's my brother. for fifteen years of my life, I never knew that I had a brother. Then I find out I did, but he died in a fire my father set before I was even born. After that it was all 'just kidding, your brother is alive and happens to be the boy with which you're in love'! Later, even though I am unbelievably relieved to find out I wasn't in love with my own brother, my real sibling is actually a crazy, blood lustful, demon possessed shadowhunter." She stopped to catch her breath, and only then realized he had been shouting. Her voice lowered, " So do not tell me to let go Izzy, I just got him."

But when Clary turned to where Jonathan had been, he was gone.


End file.
